DX only sells 3 sizes for this, and I'm afraid that none of them will fit my light. So I did some searching and happened to find a youtube video of DIY light diffuser that seemed interesting. The diffuser is made out of a 1" PVC coupler that was modified and then attached at the end was a circular piece of acrylic plastic to diffuse the light. Although it wasn't really what I was looking for because the beam seems like it is still directional out of the lens, the light is only coming through the one spot as you can see in this video:
I ended up trying it out and went to a couple hardware stores and found that all of the store only sold 1" or 3/4" couplers... the 3/4" was too small to fit around the diameter of my light, and the 1" coupler was actually too big. So I figured there has to be a better way to make a quality light diffuser.
Ideally, I would like to find something like the ones that DX sells, which is like a wand/cone type of thing. I went to Walmart and looked in the kids toy section to try an find some kind of cheap toy that had white plastic cones that were skinny and had no luck. I also went to a Michaels arts and crafts store to see if they had any skinny cone shaped plastic and didn't find anything. I feel like there has to be something really cheap that would be perfect but I just can't think of it.
the only thing i could think of was one of those white plastic travel containers for a toothbrush... which I haven't gone to the store to check out yet... but I have a feeling that it won't be wide enough to fit around the diameter of any flashlight.
Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to make something that will hold up over time, and also fit snugly without falling off easily. I'm looking forward to hearing anyone's ideas.
Well for my Nitecore i made is simple.....i use a water bottle cap and just cut the out material off....and it fits nicely. For the N3 i also used a water bottle cap and just trimed the inside threads down to fit the bezel, i also put electrical tape on the outside to keep the light bleeding from the sides....if you need a pic then let me know. But its not cone shaped at all.
Im going to post it up anyway....simple but effective and if i lose it i have a whole stash of water in bottles in the fridge. It does well outdoors to illuminate a small area, and if you want to read without disturbing anybody then set that sucker on low and it makes a good reading light.
thanks for posting the pics and the video of the diffuser... I don't have a water bottle cap that is clearish like that, but I will pick one up tomorrow morning and give it a try... looks like it works fairly well. I might also try the milk bottle thing too... although I know the mouth of milk bottle is going to be too wide for my N3. If I come up with any other ideas besides those two, I'll take some pictures and post them for you guys.
I just tried your idea with a red coke bottle cap. the cap was a tiny bit small to fit around the N3... so I think you mentioned the same thing I did... I just used my dremel with a sander on it and sanded the bottle cap threads down so the inside of the cap was nice and smooth.. sanded the black lettering outside the cap and it's pretty much just right... slides on with just a tiny bit of effort... just enough tightness to fit the head of the flashlight and it comes off pretty easily. Not much light comes through the red filter even though it does light my room up enough... I'm not sure what I or someone else would use a red filter for... Any ideas? But it's good to know it fits quite well... and I'm looking forward to trying it out with a white/clearish type bottle cap tomorrow.
Its nice to have red....i have blue, white and green. Green is suppose to help with nightvision when your moving around in or out in the yard. Easy on the eyes.
I took apart the head off the flashlight, stuck some sotch tape on the round piece of glass and cut around it, then reassembled.
It makes a nice permanent diffuser for people like me who have no use for a really bright spot in the middle of the illuminated area with all the rest dimly lit. This diffuser evens things out.
Kinda old but figured I'd throw this out there anyways. A balloon is the most compact, easily portable and cheapest diffuser you can ever get and can also be utilized as a wand or lantern. Best of all, comes in different sizes, colors, shapes (er... before you wise guys get any ideas, let's remember, this is a BALLOON I'm talking about...):
I used one on my Xin and on high it got hot enough and caused the balloon to pop . So it works well at cooler/lower temp outputs but it’s not ideal at higher levels since it traps too much heat.
Certain “Balloons” might hold up better than others >).
Just another option…. diffuser one side, 90-degree reflector in the other.
I use it camping and during blackouts all the time. A 24/7 wallet EDC item. A rubberband & paper clip will work if your pocket clip is not close enough to the head.
I use very thin white sandwich paper sometimes to do some lightpainting.
This kind of paper produces a nice soft light, but is not very suited for outdoor use because it is not waterproof.
An alternative could be book covers in frosted look.
. So it works well at cooler/lower temp outputs but it’s not ideal at higher levels since it traps too much heat.
